September 2002

Frédéric Mégret on military action: "it is far from clear that placing such action under the banner of 'war' will serve the cause of suppressing terrorism."

In an article appearing in volume 13 (2002) of the European Journal of International Law, Frédéric Mégret discusses the negative impact of classifying all sorts of military action as "war" on international law.

Steve Bell cartoon: "Schools and hospitals first"

350,000 march on London against war on Iraq

Sunday, September 29, 2002

Bush appointee and former Ken Starr underling John D. Bates to decide on GAO lawsuit

Friday, 27 September, 2002

Judge John D. Bates of Federal District Court will rule in a GAO lawsuit requesting Dick Cheney be required turn over the identities of the corporate executives who shaped the Bush administration's energy policy.

Serious questions have been raised about Judge Bates's impartiality. Bates served as Ken Starr's deputy in the investigation that cost American taxpayers $100 million. Bates said, "It has truly been a privilege to serve with Judge Starr and the rest of the outstanding OIC staff, and I look forward to continuing to work with them in this important effort. Judge Starr has led the investigation with integrity, balanced judgment and extreme care, in the best tradition of prosecutors on behalf of the United States." Bates is a Bush appointee.

1638 people have joined an online petition to remove Bates from the proceedings. Chief Judge Thomas F. Hogan is responsible for the United States District Court.

Senator Robert Byrd: "This administration, all of a sudden, wants to go to war with Iraq. [...] I am finding that the Constitution is irrelevant to people of this administration."

Saturday, September 21, 2002

Senator Robert Byrd has joined the growing number of people who have publicly criticized Mr. Bush's war on Iraq.

"This administration, all of a sudden, wants to go to war with Iraq [...] The [political] polls are dropping, the domestic situation has problems.... So all of a sudden we have this war talk, war fervor, the bugles of war, drums of war, clouds of war [...] Don't tell me that things suddenly went wrong. Back in August, the president had no plans.... Then all of a sudden this country is going to war [...] Are politicians talking about the domestic situation, the stock market, weaknesses in the economy, jobs that are being lost, housing problems? No. [...] Congress will be putting itself on the sidelines [...] Nothing would please this president more than having such a blank check handed to him."

With these comments, Byrd has made the same suggestion as Herta Däubler-Gmelin, albeit without invoking the specter of Adolf Hitler. Däubler-Gmelin resigned from her post for her remark, which drew harsh condemnation from Washington.

In response to Germany's defiance on Iraq and the Hitler flap, President Bush conspicuously failed to place a congratulatory telephone call to Chancellor Gerhard Schröder. Secretary of War Donald Rumsfeld struck a petulant tone, saying that the anti-American tone of the German election campaign had "poisoned" relations and refusing a private meeting with his German counterpart Peter Struck.

Rep. Barbara Lee offers alternative to Bush administration's Nuremberg crime against peace

September 19, 2002

Barbara Lee has provided an alternative to the Bush administration's plan to commit a Nuremberg crime against peace by initiating a war of aggression in Iraq.

She has introduced a Resolution into the House for a peaceful alternative to war on Iraq. Her resolution reads, in part, "Whereas the short-term and long-term costs of unilateral U.S. military action against Iraq and subsequent occupation may be significant in terms of United States casualties, the cost to the United States treasury, and harm to United States diplomatic relations with other countries: Now, therefore, be it Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), That the United States should work through the United Nations to seek to resolve the matter of ensuring that Iraq is not developing weapons of mass destruction, through mechanisms such as the resumption of weapons inspections, negotiation, enquiry, mediation, regional arrangements, and other peaceful means."

Lee has also shown principled leadership in her public call for an immediate Israeli withdrawal from the Palestinian territories in April. She was the only member of the House who voted against H. J. Res. 64, which ceded Congress's future warmaking authority to President Bush, who was anointed by a conservative Supreme Court in what UT Law Professor Sanford Levinson has called "the equivalent of a stinking pig in the parlor", such stinking pig being made possible only by brother Jeb's commission of voter fraud by illegally purging tens of thousands of black voters from the voter rolls in Florida.

For more information on the warmaking plans of the Bush administration, see Blueprint for US world domination exposed, Project for a New American Century, and the neo-conservatism section.

According to some recent polls, popular support seems to be leaning in favor of the United States committing a Nuremberg crime against peace by initiating a war of aggression against Iraq. This trend lends credence to former UN chief weapons inspector Scott Ritter's sober observation that Americans are "tragically ignorant--not just about Iraq, but about the rest of the world as a whole."

That is why it is critical that principled Americans heed Professor Falk's call to "extend a commitment to the sacredness of life to the entire human family" and demand that their House representatives support this wise option.

Texas congressional contact info

Lloyd Doggett homepage

Austin peace organizations

Austin Against War
Austin Center for Peace and Justice

Press Release

Defending ourselves: Peter Kilfoyle: Only a united Europe can counterbalance an increasingly paranoid and hawkish America

Rep. Cynthia McKinney: "I've sat upon this committee for 10 years and I have seen our country repeatedly refuse to use to its military to save civilians from slaughter."

September 23, 2002

"I need only remind you of our country's shameful failure to intervene in Rwanda in 1994 and in so doing we allowed 1,000,000 Rwandan men, women and children to be butchered with axes and machetes in 100 days.

"And, yes, we are the same country that abandoned the people of Afghanistan to the Taliban, that abandoned the people of the Democratic Republic of Congo to the invading Rwandans and the Ugandans, that abandoned the people of East Timor to the invading Indonesians, that abandoned the people of Sierra Leone to the brutal hand chopping killers of the RUF, that abandoned the people of Chechnya to the brutal Russian Army, that abandoned the people of the Philippines to brutalities of Ferdinand Marcos, that abandoned the people of Chile to monstrous crimes of General Pinochet and so on and so on.

"But the President would have us believe that this time things are different for once, he says, we're going to war to save people's lives."

[...]

"I learned this week from the Times of London that Bush Administration plans to spend some $200m on convincing a skeptical American and world public that the war on Iraq is justified. I didn't realize that telling the truth would be so expensive."

Evidence on Iraq Challenged: Experts Question if Tubes Were Meant for Weapons Program

Bush on Iraq: "fool me once... shame on... shame on you... ... ihfuhmee uh can't get fooled again."

September 19, 2002

In response to Iraq's surprise move to open its doors and provide unfettered access to the UN weapons inspectors, President Bush said, "there's an old saying in Tennessee I know it's in Texas probably in Tennessee that says 'fool me once... shame on... shame on you... ... ihfuhmee uh can't get fooled again.' "

According to Scott Ritter, former US Deputy Ambassador to the UN Peter Burleigh ordered Richard Butler to remove the weapons inspectors from Iraq in December 1998, which he did without consulting any other Security Council members. On 16 December 1998 the Special Commission withdrew its staff from Iraq. The United States then bombed over 100 Iraqi targets relating to Iraqi security that had nothing to do with weapons of mass distruction, using intelligence gathered through the United States' abuse of the UNSCOM process. This is why there are no inspectors in Iraq.

The US-led UN sanctions against Iraq have killed 500,000 Iraqi children under the age of five. In 1991, the US bombed civilian infrastructure such as electricity and water facilities specifically in part to accelerate the effects of the UN sanctions. The US has worked to prevent the lifting of sanctions, in an attempt to encourage the people to remove Saddam Hussein. According to an article in the New England Journal of Medicine, "the Gulf war and trade sanctions caused a threefold increase in mortality among Iraqi children under five years of age. We estimate that an excess of more that 46,900 children died between January and August 1991."

Former Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations Dennis Halliday, who resigned his position as UN humanitarian coordinator in Iraq out of protest, said "I had been instructed to implement a policy that satisfies the definition of genocide: a deliberate policy that has effectively killed well over a million individuals, children and adults. We all know that the regime, Saddam Hussein, is not paying the price for economic sanctions; on the contrary, he has been strengthened by them. It is the little people who are losing their children or their parents for lack of untreated water. What is clear is that the Security Council is now out of control, for its actions here undermine its own Charter, and the Declaration of Human Rights and the Geneva Convention. History will slaughter those responsible."

Halliday's successor, Hans von Sponeck, also resigned his post out of protest, asking "How long should the civilian population of Iraq be exposed to such punishment for something they have never done?" Jutta Burghardt, head of the World Food Program in Iraq, also resigned.

Reporting on a film of a British laser bomb hitting a marketplace and hitting civilians during the Gulf War, Dan Rather's comment was: "We can be sure that Saddam Hussein will make propaganda of these casualties." (Howard Zinn, A People's History of the United States, p. 585)

64% of Americans now favor military action in Iraq.

Watch the video
Sanctions and War on Iraq: In 300 words
John Pilger: Squeezed to death

Sister of Bhaa Saedi Baher, a Palestinian boy shot by IDF for breaking curfew, weeps in grief

Sept. 22: The sister of Bhaa Saedi Baher, a Palestinian boy shot and killed by Israeli troops for breaking curfew, mourns his death with a close relative in Nablus, West Bank. Source: t r u t h o u t

US-subsidized Israeli Defense Forces destroy PA compound, violate UNSC resolutions, and keep killing children

September 23, 2002

"A 13-year-old Palestinian boy was deliberately shot dead by an Israeli soldier without any provocation, say two British human rights volunteers who witnessed the incident.

"An Israeli army spokesman confirmed last night that an inquiry had been launched.

" 'I was with three other international volunteers in a street in Nablus on Sunday with Baha Albahsh, who often tags along with us,' said one of the witnesses, who gave his first name as Al. 'There had been some stone-throwing at tanks and armoured personnel carriers which enforce the curfew. It happens frequently and our practice is to stand at the side to observe. We always make sure the Israelis see us, and we don't stand with the kids as it can encourage them.'

"He said the incident appeared to be over and people had dispersed when an armoured personnel carrier stopped nearby. 'I heard a single shot, and Baha was lying on the ground, his eyes glazed and blood starting to come out of his mouth. It was clear he had no chance. An ambulance came within two minutes and he died in it. A high-velocity bullet had destroyed his left lung.' "

[...]

"Another of the four volunteers, Ewa Jasiewics, 24, from London, said: 'An armoured personnel carrier came and stopped on the left of the street. A soldier popped up from inside. I saw him with his rifle and he aimed at some kids on the street. There was no stone-throwing or shooting going on at the time.' "

Israeli women: "We condemn the brutal murderers of your loved ones and we condemn the leaders who must be held accountable for these war crimes, Ariel Sharon above all."

According to an article by Robert Fisk, a coalition of several Israeli women's groups sent a letter of solidarity to the Palestinian survivors of the 1982 Sabra and Shatila camps massacres saying that they support indictment of Ariel Sharon for war crimes.

"Our hearts ache to recall the terrible massacre that took place in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps 20 years ago, which Israeli leaders allowed to take place. We condemn the brutal murderers of your loved ones and we condemn the leaders who must be held accountable for these war crimes, Ariel Sharon above all."

Matthew Miller: much of the war on terror is about domestic politics

"You can't understand today's Iraq debate without understanding Karl Rove's view of the nation's political crossroads and the longer-term struggle between Democrats and Republicans to achieve a new governing majority. If you're convinced that Iraq is purely about national security, read no further. If you want to understand the full picture, let's go to the heart of darkness. "

Dick Gephardt: Bush is playing politics with the lives of American people

Senator Robert Byrd: "I cannot believe the gall and the arrogance of the White House in requesting such a broad grant of war powers."

Senator Robert Byrd, the only person in the history of the Republic to have been elected to eight consecutive six-year terms in the Senate, became another in a long line of respected leaders around the world to publicly blast the Bush administration.

Norman Finkelstein: US leadership "gang of new Hitlerites"

Monday, September 23, 2002

During a lecture given at the University of Texas at Austin on Saturday, historian Norman Finkelstein referred to those in the US leadership who are actively pushing for an invasion of Iraq as a "gang of new Hitlerites." He also referred to them as a "gang of freaks." At one point he was interrupted by thunderous applause. His lecture followed a screening of the film Diogenes: Ansar 3, a documentary about one of the prison camps erected to detain Palestinians in the Negev desert during the first Intifada.

Finkelstein opened his lecture on a personal note, saying that the film had sparked reflection on the nature of his relationship with a Palestinian man who had been imprisoned in one of the camps. He said that he disagreed and debated with the Palestinian man on several issues. He recalled that the man's mother had told him, "you don't want to know what they did to my son there." He recalled how neither of his late parents--both Holocaust survivors--ever talked about what they actually experienced during the Holocaust. He then said that after seeing the film, it occurred to him that he perhaps had no right to argue with the Palestinian man, just as he had no right to argue with his parents.

He then provided a brief historical outline of the Arab-Israeli conflict, which had to be cut short because of scheduling issues.

After his historical review of the Arab-Israeli conflict, Finkelstein offered an interpretation. Finkelstein said that a distinctive theme of the Zionist movement is that it has been characterized by a series of seemingly impossible "miracles": "the miracle of the Balfour declaration", "the miracle of the Partition Resolution" by obtaining the support of both the US and the USSR, the "miraculous clearing of the land" in 1948 with the expulsion of the native Palestinian population, the "miracle of the June war" which came when Zionism was running out of steam, and during the 1970s, the "miracle of Russian Jewry" which pulled in one million Russian Jews to solve the "Arab demographic problem." Speaking about the Russian Jewish immigrants, Finkelstein said that whether or not they were all actually Jewish was "another question."

Finkelstein said that to its credit, the Zionist movement had maximized "the subjective element" and exploited every opportunity by mobilizing all of their human and material resources to accomplish results.

Finkelstein then tied in the Israel-Palestine issue with the wider reality of the Middle East, and said that the US leadership had very quickly resolved to exploit the atrocities of September 11, 2001 "to eliminate the last residues of Arab resistance."

Finkelstein warned that if the US attacks Iraq, Israel may maximize all of their human and material resources to accomplish the mass expulsion of Palestinians from the West Bank. It was at this stage of his lecture that he referred to the US leadership as a "gang of new Hitlerites." He said that while we may not be able to prevent this from occurring, we must do everything we can to prevent it "so that we can live with ourselves." He said, "truth is on our side. Justice is on our side." He also referred to powerful mainstream Jewish organizations such as AIPAC as "the Axis of Evil."

Mass population transfers from occupied territories are war crimes and/or crimes against humanity under Principle VI (b) and (c) of the Nuremberg Principles. Representative Dick Armey advocated the expulsion of Palestinians from the West Bank on the May 1, 2002 edition of Hardball. Palestinian expulsion is often referred to euphemistically by its supporters as "transfer" or "the transfer option".

Marc Ellis: "This is the most scandalous period in Jewish history"

Monday, September 23, 2002

Marc Ellis severely criticized Israeli actions against the Palestinians, mainstream Jewish support of Israeli actions, and what he believes are misguided solutions supported by left-leaning groups during a lecture given at the University of Texas at Austin on Saturday. Ellis, who is Professor of American and Jewish Studies at Baylor University, said that "you are lying to the people when you sell the idea of ending the occupation." He said that it was time to explore the "geography of loss."

Ellis said, "when Jews raise their hand in victory with a gun, that is the loss. That is the end." He said that at Synagogues, when the Ark is opened to reveal the Torah Scrolls, the Scrolls should be replaced instead with an Apache helicopter, because "what we do, we worship." Ellis, who is considered a historian by many but who says that he is actually a theologian, said that he once had a vision at Synagogue when he actually thought that there would be an Apache helicopter there when the Ark opened. He said that regardless of individual political beliefs, the Palestinian population is one of the most vulnerable populations in the world.

Ellis also referred to a diaspora of Israeli Jews "living in exile" around the world. He said that five to six hundred thousand Israeli Jews are living in North America. He said that he has spoken to many of them, and while they usually say that they will be returning soon to Israel, the real issue is that they can't handle living in Israel any more.

Ellis has written several books, including Toward a Jewish Theology of Liberation (Orbis, 1987), Unholy Alliance: Religion and Atrocity in Our Time (Fortress Press, 1997) and Revolutionary Forgiveness: Essays on Judaism, Christianity, and the Future of Religious Life (Baylor University Press, 2000). He has also written several essays, including a review of Norman Finkelstein's book The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering. In this review, Ellis wrote, "He brought to the surface what I increasingly had become aware of in my own life: that many Jews had crossed over into solidarity with the Palestinian people and that more than a few of those who had done this were children of Holocaust survivors."

German justice minister compares tactics of George Bush to those of Adolf Hitler

Hitler-Bush comparisons abound: Public Enemy poster depicting President Bush as Hitler (gigposters.com) According to one of the artists on the discussion board, "apparently chuck d ran out on stage holding up these posters and someone frome p.e. came on stage wearing a george w. bush mask. then they launched into their song "son of a bush."

Friday September 20, 2002

Comparisons between the Bush administration and the Nazis are becoming more common. Following on the heels of Nelson Mandela's declaration that "the attitude of the United States of America is a threat to world peace" and international lawyers invoking the Nuremberg tribunals as the appropriate precedent for the planned war of aggression in Iraq, Germany's justice minister has compared the tactics of George W. Bush to those of Adolf Hitler.

Herta Däubler-Gmelin was quoted as saying that Mr. Bush "wants to divert attention from his domestic problems. It's a classic tactic. It's one that Hitler used."

Stephen Push: "This is disgraceful, what we're learning about intelligence failures, and the White House is trying to cover it up."

The White House -- which owes its existence to the illegal disenfranchisement of tens of thousands of black voters in Florida and the subsequent failure of the Supreme Court to exercise justice -- is engaging in a cover-up of the events of September 11, 2001. So says Stephen Push, a leader of a group of Sept. 11 relatives.

"In her report Friday, inquiry staff director Eleanor Hill said two hijackers, Khalid al-Mihdhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi, were able to live openly in San Diego even after they were spotted in the Malaysia meeting. They used their true names on an apartment lease and al-Mihdhar obtained a driver's license. They also took flight lessons. They could obtain and renew visas, and leave and re-enter the United States."

Susan George: "Nixon next to him [Bush] was a flaming, leftist radical."

September 20, 2002

Susan George, author of ten books and Associate Director of the Transnational Institute in Amsterdam, has said that Richard Nixon was a "flaming, leftist radical" compared to George W. Bush.

"I think he is determined [to go to war] no matter what Iraq does, but he is going to sour world public opinion even more. So, I don't want the Iraqis to suffer. That's for sure. But sometimes I think it is going to take something like that to finally galvanize the Europeans into understanding what this regime is. And I hope that there might be a tiny tiny silver lining. Because this man is really, I mean he is something else. Nixon next to him was a flaming, leftist radical."

Listen to newscast

Norwegians: US policy is "everything from arrogant to downright scary"

September 3, 2002

" 'The US has set a frightening agenda through its fight against terrorism after Sept 11,' Nils Butenschoen of Oslo's Institute for Human Rights said on Tuesday. The US, Butenschoen claims, seems to think anything is legitimate in its anti-terrorism campaign."

Francis Boyle: "regime change" and regular Anglo-American bombings of Iraq prohibited under UN Charter

September 19, 2002

" 'It appears that the U.S. administration is dead-set on a war against Iraq no matter what,' Francis Boyle, professor of international law at the University of Illinois in Chicago, told IPS.

"Boyle said that U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney has already made it clear that inspections were really not the issue. The United States is bent on 'regime change' in Iraq, which Boyle points out, 'is prohibited under the terms of the United Nations charter'.

"[...] Boyle insisted that U.S. and UK nationals be excluded from the inspections team because of the previous history of spying and of the countries using inspections as a cloak to select targets for bombing.

" 'Right now, the United States and Britain are bombing Iraq as we speak here, clearly in violation of the terms of the United Nations Charter,' he added."

Prominent international law professor invokes the Nuremberg war crimes tribunals as the precedent for the actions of the Bush administration. Again.

September 19, 2002

Richard Falk has joined Francis A. Boyle in invoking the Nuremberg war crimes tribunals as a precedent for the so-called pre-emptive doctrine of the Bush administration.

As a thought experiment, suppose Professors Boyle and Falk are correct. What reasons will history offer to explain Americans' failure to prevent a war of aggression, given that the United States is a relatively free society? More specifically, how will history explain many Americans' failure to take a single step to stop their government from carrying out a war of aggression?

Falk

"From these perspectives, under present conditions, it is clear that if the United States goes ahead and wages war against Iraq it will be guilty of what international lawyers call aggressive war, which was one of the principal charges leveled against surviving Axis leaders at the Nuremberg and Tokyo war crimes tribunals after World War II.

"It is time for the public debate on Iraq policy to raise these issues of principle and prudence, and to recognize that American leadership in the world will be much more respected, and in the end effective, if it does everything in its power to avoid war, and to strengthen the role of international law, including its insistence that international disputes be settled by peaceful means.

"It has never been more crucial for American citizens and our friends abroad to raise their voices for peace and to resist the counsels of war."

Richard Falk is professor emeritus of international law and policy at Princeton University, and board chair of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation.

Boyle

"For example, on Iraq. Right now they cannot use that War Powers Resolution to justify a war against Iraq. There is no evidence that Iraq was involved in the events on September 11. So they are fishing around for some other justification to go to war with Iraq. They have come up now with this doctrine of preemptive attack. Quite interesting that argument, doctrine was rejected by the Nuremberg Tribunal when the lawyers for the Nazi defendants made it at Nuremberg. They rejected any doctrine of preemptive attack."

Chomsky Q & A on Iraq

September 4, 2002

"Saddam's worst crimes, by far, have been domestic, including the use of chemical weapons against Kurds and a huge slaughter of Kurds in the late 80s, barbaric torture, and every other ugly crime you can imagine. These are at the top of the list of terrible crimes for which he is now condemned, rightly. It's useful to ask how frequently the impassioned denunciations and eloquent expressions of outrage are accompanied by three little words: 'with our help.'

"The crimes were well known at once, but of no particular concern to the West. Saddam received some mild reprimands; harsh congressional condemnation was considered too extreme by prominent commentators. The Reaganites and Bush #1 continued to welcome the monster as an ally and valued trading partner right through his worst atrocities and well beyond.

"Bush authorized loan guarantees and sale of advanced technology with clear applications for weapons of mass destruction (WMD) right up to the day of the Kuwait invasion, sometimes overriding congressional efforts to prevent what he was doing. Britain was still authorizing export of military equipment and radioactive materials a few days after the invasion.

"When ABC correspondent and now ZNet Commentator Charles Glass discovered biological weapons facilities (using commercial satellites and defector testimony), his revelations were immediately denied by the Pentagon and the story disappeared. It was resurrected when Saddam committed his first real crime, disobeying US orders (or perhaps misinterpreting them) by invading Kuwait, and switched instantly from friend to reincarnation of Attila the Hun."

[...]

"The world would be better off if he weren't there, no doubt about that. Surely Iraqis would. But he can't be anywhere near as dangerous as he was when the US and Britain were supporting him, even providing him with dual-use technology that he could use for nuclear and chemical weapons development, as he presumably did."

Scott Ritter: Americans "tragically ignorant"

September 13, 2002

In an interview with In These Times, former UN chief weapons inspector Scott Ritter voiced an observation about Americans that most Americans, well, may not be aware of.

As you travel the country, what level of awareness do you see in the American people about this issue?

I think the vast majority of Americans are just tragically ignorant--not just about Iraq, but about the rest of the world as a whole. They are susceptible to the kind of propagandistic manipulation that's taking place.

September 18, 2002

Medea Benjamin and other protesters with Global Exchange protested Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's efforts to legitimize Nuremberg crimes against peace before Congress on Wednesday. Secretary Rumsfeld was joined by General Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. After she and others unfurled banners which read, "INSPECTION NOT WAR", she asked the following five questions which she said she "knew the committee members wouldn't ask":

How many Iraqi civilians are you willing to kill?
How many US servicepeople are you willing to kill?
How are you going to protect us from the backlash?
Don't we have a better use for a hundred billion dollars?
Why are you obstructing arms inspections?

They then started yelling "US inspections, not US war" until a police officer escorted them out of the room. Afterwards, Secretary Rumsfeld lied by saying that Iraq threw out the inspectors when in fact the United States ordered their removal--which was done without consulting any other members of the Security Council--and then bombed over one hundred targets in Iraq. He then enumerated a long list of atrocities committed by Hussein which were both well-known to and supported by Rumsfeld's ideological allies during the times that they occurred. He then cited Security Council violations in support of the case against Iraq, when Israel actually holds the record in Security Council violations.

Democracy Now! story
NPR story and full recording of hearings (Rumsfeld's testimony begins at 7:32; Medea Benjamin et al's interruption at 11:10)

Nelson Mandela blasts Bush. Again.

September 17, 2002

" 'What right has he (Bush) to come and say that that offer is not genuine. We must condemn that very strongly. That's why I criticise leaders for keeping quiet when one country wants to bully the whole world,' an angry Mandela told reporters at his house in Johannesburg.

" 'I will speak out when they are wrong, and on this question of Iraq they're absolutely wrong,' he said. 'That is a matter for the United Nations.' "

Richard Falk on "humane globalization"

"There are contradictory ways to address the atrocities of the 11th: the prevailing mood is to invoke the metaphor of cancer, and to preach military surgery of a complex and globe-girdling character that needs to be elevated to the status of a world war, and bears comparison with World War I and II; the alternative, which I believe is far more accurate as diagnosis and cure, is to rely on the metaphor of an iceberg. The attack on America was the tip of an iceberg, the submerged portions being the mass of humanity that is not sharing in the fruits of modernity, but finds itself under the heel of American economic, military, cultural, and diplomatic power. To eliminate the visible tip of the iceberg of discontent and resentment may bring us a momentary catharsis, but it will at best create an illusion of 'victory.' What needs to be done is to extend a commitment to the sacredness of life to the entire human family, in effect, joining in a collective effort to achieve what might be called 'humane globalization.'

[...]

"On the deepest levels, the high tech dominance achieved by American power, so vividly expressed in the pride associated with "zero casualties" in the 1999 NATO War over Kosovo, is giving to the peoples of the world a similar kind of choice between poverty and subjugation and vindictive violence." -- Fearing the Aftermath

Richard Falk is Albert G. Milbank Professor of International Law and Practice; Professor of Politics and International Affairs at the Woodrew Wilson School of Public and International Affairs

Nelson Mandela: "The attitude of the United States of America is a threat to world peace"

September 9, 2002

We must understand the seriousness of this situation. The United States has made serious mistakes in the conduct of its foreign affairs, which have had unfortunate repercussions long after the decisions were taken. Unqualified support of the Shah of Iran led directly to the Islamic revolution of 1979. Then the United States chose to arm and finance the [Islamic] mujahedin in Afghanistan instead of supporting and encouraging the moderate wing of the government of Afghanistan. That is what led to the Taliban in Afghanistan. But the most catastrophic action of the United States was to sabotage the decision that was painstakingly stitched together by the United Nations regarding the withdrawal of the Soviet Union from Afghanistan. If you look at those matters, you will come to the conclusion that the attitude of the United States of America is a threat to world peace. Because what [America] is saying is that if you are afraid of a veto in the Security Council, you can go outside and take action and violate the sovereignty of other countries. That is the message they are sending to the world. That must be condemned in the strongest terms. And you will notice that France, Germany Russia, China are against this decision. It is clearly a decision that is motivated by George W. Bush's desire to please the arms and oil industries in the United States of America. If you look at those factors, you'll see that an individual like myself, a man who has lost power and influence, can never be a suitable mediator.

-- Nelson Mandela in an interview with Newsweek (BBC, Newsweek)

DOD: US involvement in international situations correlates with increases in terrorist attacks

The motive for the religious extremists involved [in the first WTC bombing] was to punish the United States for its policies in the Middle East. Their goal was to create maximum casualties and damage [...] Historical data show a strong correlation between US involvement in international situations and an increase in terrorist attacks against the United States. -- Volume I of The Defense Science Board 1997 Summer Study Task Force on DOD Responses To Transnational Threats

What did happen to Flight 93?

Bob Franken peddles asinine reductionism as "reporting"

September 19, 2002

"Last Thursday on CNN, anchor Kyra Phillips introduced a report by Washington correspondent Bob Franken who said that the Rev. Jesse Jackson was leading a march on the Justice Dept.

" '(T)hey are complaining about the loss of civil liberties, and the loss of access to this administration,' said Franken. 'It is the coalition of the same civil rights, labour, women's rights groups that we have known for decades now.'

"He then gave Jackson about 10 seconds. To my ears he sounded awfully dismissive. But it got worse: A few seconds later Phillips gave at least three minutes to a story about a two-legged dog."

12 September 2002

William Schneider: Marketing Iraq: Why now?

American mainstream media and public discussion: GIGO

Garbage In, Garbage Out

"Often abbreviated as GIGO, this is a famous computer axiom meaning that if invalid data is entered into a system, the resulting output will also be invalid. Although originally applied to computer software, the axiom holds true for all systems, including, for example, decision-making systems."

Webopedia.com

officialssay

September 2002

Frédéric Mégret on military action: "it is far from clear that placing such action under the banner of 'war' will serve the cause of suppressing terrorism."

350,000 march on London against war on Iraq

Justice Antonin Scalia: "Government ... derives its moral authority from God. It is the minister of God with powers to revenge, to execute wrath, including even wrath by the sword."

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Bush appointee and former Ken Starr underling John D. Bates to decide on GAO lawsuit

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Senator Robert Byrd: "This administration, all of a sudden, wants to go to war with Iraq. [...] I am finding that the Constitution is irrelevant to people of this administration."

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Rep. Barbara Lee offers alternative to Bush administration's Nuremberg crime against peace

Texas congressional contact info

Austin peace organizations

Rep. Cynthia McKinney: "I've sat upon this committee for 10 years and I have seen our country repeatedly refuse to use to its military to save civilians from slaughter."

Evidence on Iraq Challenged: Experts Question if Tubes Were Meant for Weapons Program

Bush on Iraq: "fool me once... shame on... shame on you... ... ihfuhmee uh can't get fooled again."

US-subsidized Israeli Defense Forces destroy PA compound, violate UNSC resolutions, and keep killing children

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Israeli women: "We condemn the brutal murderers of your loved ones and we condemn the leaders who must be held accountable for these war crimes, Ariel Sharon above all."

Matthew Miller: much of the war on terror is about domestic politics

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Senator Robert Byrd: "I cannot believe the gall and the arrogance of the White House in requesting such a broad grant of war powers."

Norman Finkelstein: US leadership "gang of new Hitlerites"

Marc Ellis: "This is the most scandalous period in Jewish history"

German justice minister compares tactics of George Bush to those of Adolf Hitler

Stephen Push: "This is disgraceful, what we're learning about intelligence failures, and the White House is trying to cover it up."

Susan George: "Nixon next to him [Bush] was a flaming, leftist radical."

Norwegians: US policy is "everything from arrogant to downright scary"

Francis Boyle: "regime change" and regular Anglo-American bombings of Iraq prohibited under UN Charter

Prominent international law professor invokes the Nuremberg war crimes tribunals as the precedent for the actions of the Bush administration. Again.

Falk

Boyle

Chomsky Q & A on Iraq

Scott Ritter: Americans "tragically ignorant"

Medea Benjamin asks Rumsfeld questions; Rumsfeld ignores her and continues lying

Nelson Mandela blasts Bush. Again.

Richard Falk on "humane globalization"

Nelson Mandela: "The attitude of the United States of America is a threat to world peace"

DOD: US involvement in international situations correlates with increases in terrorist attacks

What did happen to Flight 93?

Bob Franken peddles asinine reductionism as "reporting"

12 September 2002

American mainstream media and public discussion: GIGO

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